U.S. Tech Company Changes Its Name From Isis for Pretty Obvious Reasons

A Kurdish soldier with the Peshmerga keeps guard near the frontline with ISIS militants.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

If you hadn’t heard of the Islamist terror group ISIS six months ago, you’re surely not alone. Today, it’d be hard not to associate the word with savagely violent extremists beheading journalists, bent on creating a caliphate across Syria and Iraq. If you happen to, say, own a company innocently called ISIS, the other ISIS’ rise to global infamy means it’s probably time to come up with a new name.

On Monday, that’s exactly what Isis software company did as the mobile wallet platform traded in its baggage-laden old name for a new one—Softcard. “In July, we announced that we would rebrand the Isis Wallet to avoid confusion and association with a violent Islamic militant group in the Middle East whose name, when translated into English, is known by the acronym, ISIS,” the company’s chief executive Michael Abbott said in a statement. “However coincidental, we have no desire to share a name with this group and our hearts go out to those affected by this violence.”

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The company, a joint venture between mobile heavyweights AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, “enables users to securely store financial information and pay in stores by tapping their smartphones,” according to Bloomberg.